faris

This is an open letter to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob.

Mr Al-Rawi, while it is commendable that you had somewhat of an epiphany on Old Year’s Night and awoke on New Year’s Day determined to address the nuisance and dangers of the fireworks menace, any attempt to do so while continuing to ignore the general and widespread nuisance that is noise pollution is disrespectful and without merit.

Be reminded, sir, that you are the “guardian of the public interest”, yet you seem to be consistently ignoring the numerous letters and complaints by citizens on this issue. Why is that, sir?

The police are not dealing with this problem. Furthermore, in some cases the police may even be misleading the public to believe a law on our books which states “Creating a public nuisance” needs a decibel meter to be enforced. It would be very helpful if you could publicly interpret this mysterious law, and make any necessary changes in the public’s interest.

Mr Jacob, sir, could you possibly explain to the citizens of this country why the police have never enforced this said law? Are you aware that noise pollution is a widespread nuisance? Are you also aware that a lot of this so-called music residents are being forced to endure on a daily basis contains obscene lyrics?

I am also curious—as I read the recent health regulations regarding the opening of rivers, streams, etc—about whether the police officers who would be ensuring no loud music is played at rivers, etc, are the same officers who ignore these very noisy cars on our roadways daily. I would really appreciate if you could answer these questions publicly, sir.

I have to again register my disappointment at the media for its failure to ask these pertinent questions.

DF Redmond

Laventille

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